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Fear Itself

Although a number of entertainments produced in the past few years have adopted that title, this post is about none of them. It’s intended as an observation in the run-up to next month’s midterm election. My team, the progressive/liberal/transparent faction is sending me daily emails that read a lot like this:

The extreme candidates on the other side aren’t just intent on bringing our progress to a halt, they want to take us backward, well beyond the failed policies of the last administration.

They envision an America where Social Security is privatized and left to the whims of the market. They picture an America where education programs get cut to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and corporations. And they look forward to an America where the insurance companies once again have the right to deny coverage to anyone they want.

This election is about choosing the direction this country takes.

On one side is the millions from undisclosed donors attacking our candidates. On the other is us. And each and every one of us who is committed to this struggle for change has a role to play.

That’s why we all need to be knocking on doors, making phone calls, and spreading the word from here through Election Day. The President is doing all he can, and he’s counting on all of us to take that next step today.

We’re flying three winners to Las Vegas to meet the President backstage just before he speaks at one of the most important rallies before Election Day.

And your donation will help us fund the most ambitious grassroots program ever run in an election like this — from putting targeted ads on the air to paying the operations expenses in our field offices to providing food for volunteers.

My donation (the least-participatory aspect of my support of this anti-authoritarian movement) will help them put targeted ads on the air — which is another way of saying some of my gift will be given to mainstream media conglomerates represented by the Alliance for Motion Picture and Television Producers. Oops. I figured out three years ago that those guys are the enemy of innovation in broadcast media, egalitarian cooperation and information freedom. My paying them to air attack-ads seems like a bad idea.

There’s something in this invocation of the liberal/progressive faithful that reminds me that the enemies of my freedom are faceless, radical extremists…who I should fear…because they have weapons of mass electoral persuasion, and corporate money running out their ears.

It seems to me that my team (exactly like the other guys) is resorting to the irrational, magical and superstitious marketing of fear itself.

The discouragingly-ineffective forces opposed to the resugent conservative insurgency deserve my support in the form of my vote. Period.